How many groundcover plants for 200 sq ft at 8 inch spacing?

Groundcovers such as pachysandra, creeping phlox or sedum are often sold in flats and planted close so they knit together in a season or two. Eight inches is on the tight side; at 12 in the same area would need about 231 plants, but you will be weeding bare soil for longer.

What to know about planting 200 sq ft of groundcover at 8 in

Five hundred plants is a planting job measured in days, not hours. At this count a bulb auger on a cordless drill is worth having; so is a helper setting out plugs ahead of the digger. Plant in rows across the slope, offsetting each row by 4 in, and water each flat as it goes in rather than at the end.

The spacing decides how long you weed. University of Illinois Extension allows one to two growing seasons for groundcovers to cover completely, and suggests setting fast spreaders further apart than slow ones. At 8 in, most spreading groundcovers close up within that window; at 12 in you save almost 300 plants but should plan on mulching and weeding the gaps for longer.

Buy for the flats you actually need: 520 plants is just under 29 flats of 18, so the last flat is nearly full and any spare plugs fill gaps where a few fail. Flat sizes vary by nursery, so check the cell count before ordering.

Between the new plants, a thin mulch layer holds moisture and keeps weeds down while the groundcover spreads; on a bank, pine straw stays put better than bark. Planting a smaller bed of perennials instead? See how many plants for a 10×10 bed at 12 inch spacing.